Scott Morrison says Mark McGowan is selling WA short

Scott Morrison has blasted WA Premier Mark McGowan’s plan to keep his state’s borders closed well into next year.

Scott Morrison in Canberra on Thursday Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison has blasted West Australian Premier Mark McGowan’s plan to keep his state’s borders closed well into next year, saying the WA leader is “underselling” the desire of West Australians to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and reconnect with the world.

Before he handed down his state budget on Thursday, Mr McGowan said the hard border would not open until significantly more than 80 per cent of his state’s adults were double dosed and suggested that it would not meet national plan targets until January at the earliest.

The WA Labor government is facing possible High Court challenges against the constitutionality of the hard border when most of the country is vaccinated, and Senator Amanda Stoker – the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General – said the common-wealth still had the right to intervene.

The Prime Minister, who has said he will not pursue any commonwealth legal challenge against state borders, said West Australians would be mostly vaccinated before the New Year and the state would be able to open up sooner than Mr McGowan’s suggested April date.

“He’s underselling Western Australians. I think they’ll get vaccinated sooner than that,” Mr Morrison said.

“He’s making assumptions that Western Australians won’t get vaccinated until some time in January. I don’t think Western Australians will be that complacent.”

“I have a bigger confidence in Western Australians about their wanting to re-engage with the rest of the country and the world as Western Australians look out, they don’t look in.”

Mr McGowan’s reluctance to open borders at the national plan’s 80 per cent vaccination threshold has led to questions about the stability of Mr Morrison’s deal with the premiers.

The WA Premier has previously said he does not want to open up at the 70 per cent vaccination mark as it would introduce the Delta strain into his community prematurely and could lead to a significant number of deaths.

On Thursday, Mr McGowan said he did not have a date for when he could open the border but it would likely be after January.

“Tasmania is talking about 90 per cent – that’s ambitious – but somewhere above 80 per cent we’ll try and set the date,” he told The West Australian. “I don’t know whether it’ll be February, March or April. I suspect it will be one of those months.”

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash told The Australian last week that state premiers’ constitutional powers to close borders could diminish once the 80 per cent threshold was met, as the legal arguments which saw the High Court last year back the WA hard border had shifted.

Senator Cash’s comments led to strong denials from the government that the commonwealth would get involved in any future legal challenge.

But Senator Stoker said on Thursday that the commonwealth still had the right to intervene on borders if the matter reached the High Court.

“Just like any Australian can mount a challenge, the federal government has certain rights to do that too. But the answer is … in the agreement about the national plan. And it’s time (Mr McGowan) fronted up and did as he committed,” she told Sky News.